The present invention relates to an acoustic instrument, and in a preferred embodiment to an acoustic guitar.
Acoustic instruments, such as an acoustic guitar, cello, piano, violin drum, and the like, are of course well known in the art. A problem with presently utilized pick-ups in amplifying the acoustic sound of such instruments is that typically a hollow sound is generated, which is not truly an acoustic sound.
When it is desired to amplify the sound of an instrument such as an acoustic guitar, prior art approaches have been to provide a microphone fixed on a stand and to play the acoustic guitar with the sound hole near the fixed position microphone. This approach restricts movement of the player, as the acoustic guitar must be played usually within twelve inches of the fixed position microphone.
Another prior art approach is to utilize a transducer and magnetic pickup which fit within the body, near the sound hole of the acoustic guitar. However, this approach, while providing mobility for the player, still generates the undesirable hollow sound, or what could be characterized as an electronic sound, and not truly an acoustic sound.
As is known in the art, acoustic guitars improve over the course of time as the guitar wood "mellows." The prior art approaches described above, while providing an amplification of the acoustic sound, generally reflect the sounds of the vibration of the strings and of the wood, but does not provide a true representation of the sound of any harmonics of the acoustic guitar.
A further problem of the prior art approaches above is that microphones located near the sound hole (whether within or without the sound hole) can result in a feedback problem, which can be very annoying and undesirable.